Chest Injuries in Polytrauma

Improvements in hip fracture incidence counterbalanced by the rise of other fracture types: Data from Spain 2000–2010

“…Thoracic fractures are common in patients with multiple injuries which would explain the low percentage of cases in which they appear as an isolated injury [24]. Our results coincide in many respects with those of one of the few studies of trends in incidence of this type of fracture [25].…”

Activation State of the Circulating Neutrophil in Isolated Chest Trauma Patients: Characterization of Surface Receptor Expression

“…Elevation of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the lungs with subsequent immune suppression is associated with an enhanced risk for ALI progression [15,24]. None of our patients developed ARDS even those with severe injury or pulmonary contusion that findings were reported an earlier studies [4,6] where the innate immune response provoked was not enough to cause ARDS. This study showed that IL-6 serum level increased in isolated chest trauma patient resulted in an increase in circulating IL-6 the finding that was found in major as well as minor lung contusions due to enhanced inflammatory response, and increased levels of circulating IL-6 and IL-8 in a study performed by Maier et al and increased level of IL-6 in a study performed by Visser et al [6].…”

“…Such outcomes have been related to excess production of the various biological mediators including cytokines, complement (e.g. C5a), CXC chemokine and coagulation factors [4,5]. Neutrophils differentially express a specific surface receptors by which the cells can respond and adapt to different signals [11].…”

“…The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common complication after severe injury, the incidence of ARDS is found to be low in patients with isolated chest injury [3] and with increased severity of pulmonary contusion the incidence increase [4][5][6].…”

Is Routine Spiral CT-Chest Justified in Evaluation of the Major Blunt Trauma Patients?

“…Blunt chest injuries are common injuries in the polytraumatized patient, especially the entities of unstable thorax and pulmonary contusion [1][2][3][4]. Furthermore, these injuries lead to a higher mortality in the multiple injured patients than isolated injuries of the same region [5].…”